“Me paro en la cancha como en la vida”: un análisis del fútbol feminista en la Villa 31 desde las teorías de género

The analysis of sport from a gender perspective appears belatedly in the Argentine academy and feminism. However, in recent years there have been notable advances in the feminist criticism of sport as a space where sexist culture and gender inequality are sustained. The objective of this article is to analyze how the feminist movement is appropriating football, the most popular sport in the country. I inquire what continuities and ruptures take place in this process regarding the experience of gender: how can feminism appropriate a sport that symbolizes hegemonic masculinity and is part of the masculine identity construction in Argentina? Is a competitive practice compatible with sorority? Can the aggressiveness and physical friction that characterize soccer be constructive when they are embodied by female bodies? What bodies have legitimacy to carry out these practices? To investigate these questions, I will put into dialogue the theories of gender with the ethnographic research that I carry out together with La Nuestra Fútbol Feminista, a group made up of coaches, players, former players, popular educators, and women from the Villa 31 in Buenos Aires.